


Back in Reality

by Torrin



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fatherly Love, Remembrence, Serenity - Freeform, Songfic, guitar playing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 06:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3600129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torrin/pseuds/Torrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few months after Joel and Ellie settle at Tommy's compound, he is yet again surprised by Ellie. After some digging, the past is brought up and feelings are conflicted. But can Joel cope with the past and live with the blessings he has?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back in Reality

Joel was drifting off into a state where he didn't hear anything, or know anything, other than the task he was performing. And today, that task was cleaning the guns. It was almost second nature to pull back the slide, drop the magazine, and all the other minuscule details this required. For the first time in years, as he was focusing on nothing but the gun in his hands, something distracted him.

It was the sound of a guitar being strummed. No chords were being played, someone was just strumming. Then he heard the familiar sound of each individual string being plucked. He was a little astonished, he didn't think anyone else in Tommy's town could play. Joel turned to the balcony that overlooked a good part of the town. He opened the door and stood, arms resting on the old, dilapidated railing. His eyes scanned the streets and porches below him, but couldn't find any trace of a person playing a guitar. 

He heard the strums once again, but they weren't coming from the town. They were below him, echoing up from the front porch. So, who was playing it? 

"Couldn't be Ellie," he thought out loud. 

He jogged down the stairs and crept up to the front door. To his surprise, Ellie had an Alvarez in her hands and a learner's book balanced on her left knee. He smiled and opened the door. She turned to meet his gaze and all she saw was that goofy smile he was showing more and more lately. All she could do was return a smile and return to her picking.

"That's mighty fine, for a beginner," he said.

"Yeah, well, I've been practicing for a while now. I wanted to surprise you, but...." 

"Aw, baby girl, I'm sorry. I hadn't the slightest idea you were doin' this," 

She told him it was okay, and he sat down on the porch swing beside her. The old oak wood creaked and popped as they swang back and forth. Joel noticed the summer breeze that was disheveling Ellie's hair, gently making it flow with the rhythm of the wind. He missed the days like this before the Cordyceps, days when he'd hike with Sarah or just pick the evening away on his old Gibson Hummingbird. Sarah would listen to him play that guitar for hours.

She pushed the instrument towards him and he willingly obliged, running his fingers up the guitar's neck. Ellie noticed that Joel had that goofy smile painted across his face again. He strummed the guitar a few times, playing different chords as he went.

"You know, old man, you never did sing for me," Ellie said.

"You're right, I didn't. Well, I can play a tune I learned back in my day,"

"Yeah, that sounds good!"

He started humming a tune and strumming a few chords, trying to get the rhythm of the song. The old instrument didn’t sound horrible, but it was quite obviously not up to par with its tune. Joel’s weathered fingers wound around the neck of the guitar gracefully, hitting notes and chords that were long forgotten when humanity collapsed.

“There is a house, in Jackson town,” Joel’s gruff voice echoed within the confines of the front porch. “They call the Rising Sun. And it's been the ruin, of many a poor girl-"

"Girl? Geez Joel, didn't know you were into that sorta shit," 

"Very funny Ellie. The song isn't sang from my point of view, just some girl's who works at the House of the Rising Sun." 

They shared a laugh and Ellie asked what the house was. Joel told her that rumor had it, it was a house of burlesque back when the world was normal. She looked a bit unnerved by the song Joel had chosen to play, but he assured her it was considered a good song by thousands of people before the outbreak hit. He quit singing but hummed in unison with the guitar, letting the music consume him. 

“So, you’re just gonna quit singin’, huh?” Ellie said, mimicking Joel’s accent.

“Well, yes, I suppose I oughta. I haven’t sang for years. Matter of fact, the last time I sang was the day before the outbreak. It was a duet…”

“With Sarah?”

He shook his head, happiness dying off with the music. They sat on the swing in utter silence, awkwardness and sorrow playing tug-of-war with what Ellie wanted to say. After she decided she had enough of the muteness, Ellie looked up and Joel and he met her alluring gaze. 

“It, uh, was a duet with Tommy. Y’see, my birthday was a day before the world fell apart. We were singing that morning for Sarah,”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Joel, I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t worry yourself, Ellie. Ain’t no harm done at all by a little curiosity.”

He propped the guitar up against the side of the house and set back against the swing. Ellie turned to her side, put her head against Joel’s abdomen, and set her feet over the arm of the swing. He put his arm around her and she smiled, showing no grief towards the real world, the world beyond the barricades. 

“Joel?”

“Yeah darlin’?”

“What was Sarah like?”

He gulped when she asked. Sarah was still a pretty sensitive subject, but he knew he couldn’t keep his emotions bottled up forever. Fighting back to urge to just tell her he didn’t want to talk, he sighed loudly. Ellie looked up at him, but he didn’t look her in the eyes.

“Well, I reckon she was a lot like you. Smart. Really smart. She was real sweet, but constantly crackin’ jokes. She—she was the perfect daughter, everything I could’ve asked for and hoped and wanted,”

All Ellie could respond with was, “Oh?”

“And since you two are so much alike, that makes you everythin’ that I could want.”

Ellie sat up and hugged Joel, her arms squeezing the area below his ribs. He stroked her hair as she let her grip go. 

"Joel, you don't have to compare us. She was your daughter, I understand-"

"Baby girl, I wasn't comparin' either one of ya. I love you both. And, since you brought Sarah up, I've thought of a song she liked. She made me learn it so I could play it on my old guitar. I uh, think you'll like it too,"

He swiped the guitar up and laid it across his knee, hand strumming the strings. He made some minor adjustments to the tune and played a chord. With that, he began picking a tune. 

"I wanted you to know, that I love the way you laugh. I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away. I keep your photograph, and I know it serves me well. I wanna hold you high and steal your pain," Joel sang.

"Because I'm broken when I'm lonesome. And I don't feel right when you're gone away," Ellie sang, matching Joel's tune.

He didn't know how she knew this song, but he figured she'd listened to it on that mp3 of hers. And he was right. She'd picked up a Seether album on one of her many trips to the mall with Riley. But, in all reality, where she knew the song from wasn't important, and he knew this. What was important is that they were together, and nothing could come between them, and they both knew this.

**Author's Note:**

> The two songs I chose for this work are:
> 
> The House of the Rising Sun (Modified)—The White Buffalo
> 
> Broken—Seether feat. Amy Lee


End file.
